Diane Beckman
'''Brigadier General Diane Beckman, '''a main character, is the National Security Agency Director and was formerly Colonel John Casey's superior until he was fired in the fourth season finale. She is portrayed by Bonita Friedericy. In the second season, Beckman revealed that she has spent a significant amount of time and resources over several years prior to the series in hunting Orion, who is the Intersect's chief designer and revealed to be Chuck's father. Character Beckman's primary role is to provide Team Bartowski with intelligence updates on Chuck's flashes, and assign their mission objectives, which is often done via video conference from her office. It is speculated that she resides in Dallas, Texas, referenced in . Often these missions are the result of one of Chuck's flashes in the course of his normal day. However, on several occasions, Beckman has issued an assignment of her own devising based on events elsewhere, to which Chuck's abilities as the Intersect are particularly well-suited. Beckman is seldom personally involved on these assignments and allows the team to proceed on their own. UIn , however, she benched the team when a flash by Chuck was proven wrong, and in , she ordered Casey's lock down when his personal vendetta against his former mentor botched a mission. Beckman personally involved herself when Chuck was contacted by Orion after Chuck's rogue search to find him, and flew to Burbank herself to debrief the team. This was the first time since the pilot episode one of the team's supervisors met with them in person, and also the first time they were directly involved in that episode's mission. Season One General Beckman first appeared in "Chuck Versus the Intersect" as General Mary Beckman, originally the National Intelligence Director portrayed by Wendy Makkena. She sends NSA agent Major John Casey to Burbank to track the whereabouts of the stolen First Intersect. As of , the character has since been portrayed by Bonita Friedericy as overseer of Team Bartowski alongside CIA Director Langston Graham. Her character has also been rewritten as the NSA Director instead. Casey and Sarah Walker are to protect Chuck Bartowski until the replacement Intersect can be put back online. Sarah and Chuck believe that once this occurs, Chuck would be free to go back to his normal life; however, Beckman secretly issues an order to Casey that Chuck was to be killed to prevent the government secrets he retained from falling into the wrong hands. Season Two Having issued Casey a hit on Chuck, the order is rescinded after the destruction of the Second Intersect. Because Operation Bartowski is the only effective weapon against CIA splinter group Fulcrum, Beckman decides that Chuck is a valuable resource. She, therefore, blocks his attempts to contact Orion in order to prevent having his Intersect removed. Beckman has also made it clear that if Chuck is ever identified, he will be taken into protective custody. General Beckman typically doesn't interfere directly with the team's dynamics. However Sarah's confrontational attitude towards her treatment of Chuck in , led to concern that Sarah is too emotionally attached to the asset. Knowing Casey's attempt to cover for them, she immediately requests he provides an unedited report on Chuck and Sarah's relationship. This led to her reassigning CIA Agent Alexandra Forrest as Chuck's CIA handler under directive 49-B. After Forrest subsequently fails to protect Chuck - as she lacks Sarah's close personal connection and understanding of him - Beckman is forced to acknowledge that Sarah's feelings for the asset made her the best choice to protect him. When Chuck fails his plan to find his father, Stephen Bartowski, now revealed as Orion, and allowing Fulcrum agent Jill Roberts to escape, Beckman decides to pull the plug on Operation Bartowski, and orders Casey and Sarah to take Chuck into permanent custody. She reverses this decision when the Intersect is finally removed from Chuck's head in . In the season two finale, , she offers Chuck a position as an analyst on the Intersect Project. She also allows Casey to return to his old special ops unit, and assigns Sarah to the Intersect Project with Intersect expert, Bryce Larkin. Season Three Iin , she ordered Sarah to apprehend Casey upon learning that he had stolen a valuable item from a CIA facility, and when Casey was broken out, she came to Castle herself and ordered Sarah and Chuck to capture him, dead or alive. Despite this, the three agents eventually work together, and take down the Ring cell that had coerced Casey into stealing from the CIA in the first place. Beckman could not brook Casey's treason, and was dismissed from the tream. Beckman also wished to discuss Sarah's previous request on transferring the latter out of Burbank, as Chuck has needed her less and less. Beckman does not look lightly on the three years and the "untold millions of dollars" spent helping Chuck reach his potential as a spy, but has become understanding of Chuck's "hand-wringing" and "second-guessing" as part of his process. Beckman insists that until watching a video recovered from the Ring, she had no knowledge that Sarah had killed CIA agent Daniel Shaw's wife, Evelyn Shaw. In the season three finale, Beckman meets the higher-ups of the CIA, who were concerned about the state of Operation Bartowski and Chuck in particular. She gets swept away in a setup staged by a very much alive Shaw. The purpose was to discredit her so that Shaw could take her place at the spies' convention, where the Five Elders of the Ring were going to take over the NSA and the CIA. Team Bartowski arrests the Elders along with Daniel Shaw and his Ring associate Justin Sullivan, who had involved Ellie Woodcomb, leading to the disintegration of the Ring. Chuck later reveals to his sister, that Beckman was reinstated, and she had allowed him to retire from the spy world. Season Four Beckman returns in person again in , having changed the Buy More into a full-fledged CIA substation, and all of its new staff are undercover operatives. Sometime after season three and before the fourth season, she had been instructed by the President himself to keep Chuck as a priority. In the same episode, she tampers with all of Chuck's job interviews, where all his employers would either fall asleep on him, never return from being momentarily away, or have him escorted away from the building. Chuck gives up on his search for a new job until he stumbled across the rebuilt Buy More as it was destroyed in the season three finale. Chuck enters the store along with Morgan and finds the store running to perfection, and decides to apply for a job at the Buy More once again - only to find the store manager to be Beckman. In Morgan advises Beckman to down play the "perfectionism" performed by all the undercover Buy More staff as it is opposite to Buy More's usual operation peramerters. To prevent future suspicions upon the Team Bartowski operations, Beckman withdraws herself from her cover as Store Manager and has Morgan take the job. In , when Team Bartowski is dismissed by CIA Agent Clyde Decker, Beckman secretly provides support to the team's cause to rescue Hartley Winterbottom and to save Sarah. Season Five Beckman provides c ontinuing support to Team Bartowski throughout the fifth season, whenever Carmichael Industries is in need. In , she arranges a secret meeting with Chuck to give him a contract. Sarah later contacts her about the flaws of the Intersect. Beckman also reveals that she never sent the Intersect Glasses to Chuck which were given to him at the end of season four, and later contacts him to warn about the CIA's ordered hit on Morgan. In , Beckman visits Castle to remove the corrupted Intersect 2.0 from Morgan at the request of Team Bartowski. Eventually, Beckman helps convince the CIA to pull out from the hit on Morgan. In , the team depends on Beckman to get Chuck into a Los Angeles CIA base. To achieve this, Chuck dresses up in a Santa suit to prevent being identified. Beckman also eventually had to kiss Chuck (while he is in the Santa suit) to cover up breaking into an office. And despite agreeing never to bring this up again, Chuck and Beckman had to tell Sarah, stating that "we all have to make sacrifices". Beckman was also invited and attends the Bartowski Christmas party at the end of the episode. She is, by series end, once more a de facto ally of Team Bartowski. Personal Life Beckman maintains a somewhat distant relationship with CIA seduction specialist, Roan Montgomery. The two share a relationship for many decades and are still ongoing. It is unknown when they first began their relationship, but the two have already been together since the year 1989, during the riot of the Berlin Wall. The only thing preventing their relationship is that Roan has never preferred to settle down with her and enjoys his career as a spy in the field more. Not much is known of Beckman's past and relationships other than that she, either born or dyed her hair so, was a blonde in the '80s. It is also worth noting that she maintains a close friendship with former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. Chuck has also jokingly named her as "Roan's girlfriend" in his spy life chart behind his Tron poster. Trivia * The General has a long term on again off again relationship with seduction specialist Roan Montgomery. * In the second season, she is the only recurring character not to have a place in the opening credits despite having more screen time than both Ellie and Anna. * In a season two episode, it is mentioned that one of her personal friends is former Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice. * Beckman was at one point a blonde, it is unsure if she was born with blonde hair, as Roan states that in the 80s, everyone was a "dirty blonde". * Roan was the first character to have ever even indicated and spoken of Beckman's first name, constantly referring to her as Diane in . * Prior to the beginning of the show, the character was originally to be named as General Mary Beckman in several casting lists and was originally portrayed by Wendy Makkena in the pilot. Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Female Category:NSA Agent Category:Military